Premature paeans

Premature paeans

Editorial | January 6, 2016 8:45 pm

There is something shallow to the haste with which the Aam Aadmi Party leadership in the Capital has attempted to wax eloquent over the “success” of the odd-even experiment to reduce the auto-emission quotient of the atmospheric pollution that plagues the city. That after just three days the city&’s ministers claim overwhelming positive response, and “fly kites” about citizens desiring the system to operate on a more sustained basis suggests they are being selective about what they hear. Add to that, frequent flashes of their paranoia that just about everyone else has conspired to scuttle the scheme and the motivation raises suspicions -is the projected effort to cleanse the air politically-propelled? For, Kejriwal & Co cling to the skewed belief that the best way “up” is to pull others down. This is not to condemn or even evaluate the odd-even move; it would be premature to attempt that, or to echo the criticism from other political parties. Shedding cynicism and after giving the benefit of every doubt to the Delhi government to accept that they are in fact earnest in their effort, the only authentic assessment can be a professional “weighing” of improvement in air quality (yet to be confirmed) against loss of man-hours at the work place, the impact on productivity, and other economic drawbacks. Not to discount the massive inconvenience, perhaps even added problems for those needing medical aid etc. That brand of evaluation will not come from those whose priority is hitting the headlines. It would also be important not to confuse the obvious easing of traffic conditions when fewer vehicles ply with rendering the air less toxic: cars are a “visible” but far from only source of pollution. If they were, the logical conclusion would be to persist with the scheme. That compliance has been “high” does not translate into public endorsement. Most citizens -unlike many netas -are law-abiding, reluctant to risk running into trouble with customarily-extortionist cops. But for long can they tolerate traditionally inadequate public transport, and for how long can the Metro or the bus service operate at peak levels? Crowded stations and jam-packed trains and buses create another set of problems. Even if only an experiment, chiefly aimed at formulating a response to crisis conditions, the odd-even scheme has not been comprehensively “thought through”. Sure it made a media splash, but we would like to believe that was not the sole objective. It is also disturbing to see so many schoolchildren being drafted into the “promotional” effort without first enlightening them on all aspects of what causes atmospheric pollution -weather factors included. “Mummy-Papa&’s” car isn’t the only culprit, not by a long shot, and precocity can’t be an effective antidote to a complex problem.